Have any other detachments been receiving a pack from specialist TA units (specifically the RLC in my case)? It says that, provided you are a good enought cadet, you can skip basic training in TA and move straight on to officer training. I'm considering it as it sounds better than doing OTC at uni. Anyone know anything about this or have any comments?

Yes it's possible but it's a terrible idea. Anyone aspiring to be an Officer should not be actively looking for ways to short-cut the system. Whether it's Module 1 as a TA DEPO or MTQ1 as a UOTC Cdt it is part of a structured training programme designed to prepare you for the Commissioning Course. The key is in your statement that "provided you are a good enough cadet" - Who decides? RMAS take a very dim view of weak Commanders signing off any individual just to make up the numbers.

I see where you're coming from abacus but I've seen some of the UOTC lot that have passed MTQ1, and many of them haven't really impressed me. I know there are probably some things taught in MTQ1 that I have only touched on as a cadet, but the bread and butter stuff, weapons, drill, fieldcraft, M+C, I've been doing for 5 years and know it at least reasonably well. I don't want to have to spend a year covering stuff I already know just so I can gleam the bits I don't. Might sound a bit selfish but it seems a little pointless to me.
Edit:
StabTiffy; the pack we got was actively encouraging cadets to jump straight to officer training, it wasn't like it said "there's a possibility that you might", it was saying that if you met a certain standard as a cadet they would let you skip to officer training.

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My point is that I'm currently at 4* level with ACF, and wouldn't dream of getting paid for it. I do it because I enjoy it, even teaching the little recruits who join and are completely clueless. I just think it's unfair that, whilst learning MTQ1 people should be paid for learning. Subsidised some costs, yes, but paid thirty-odd-pound, no.

First off - forget cadets. While it may seem 'big' now, to a 17 year old? 18 year old? 'instructing' 'clueless new recruits' who are 3 feet tall and call you 'daddy' in their unguarded moments, ACF is not going to impress anyone. Not even in an OTC. Keep it quiet. The truth of it is that you don't even know how clueless you are at the moment, and you're in for a shock. If you 'large it up' you will be a laughing stock and you'll have to leave and then spend your three years at uni in disguise.
Secondly, it may be an anomally that you get paid, given that we won't be seeing you in deserts in the near future, but why complain? If you do MTQ 1, 2, have attachments in your summer holidays to inf units in BAOR, do adventure training in the Alps - etc - and you enjoy it so much that you then commission and join 'normal' TA and stay in for years then the army's made a good investment, hasn't it? That's me, by the way. Even if you don't decide to make a long term thing of it, you need money as a student, don't you? It kept me out of debt for three years. Don't knock it.
Lastly - this must a wind-up, right?

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Look sonny. There are SO many threads on here entitled 'why officers are crap' and similar from ARRSE users who've blindly followed into (the wrong) open featureless moorland by a 2Lt with a degree and a wonky compass, ended up attacking in the wrong direction, driving round and round Otterburn trying to find an RV etc, that I hope it really is quite clear that this is NOT a good idea. 'Officer training' is not just about a few weekends and then two weeks at STAB Sandbags. If you think that, then you will have a rude shock. It's cumulative; it's the sum total of all of your prior experiences. My 'officer training' included, as an 18 year old, being led blindly by some chinless tw@t all over the moors and back again, and listening to a group of subalterns talking about their 'train sets' (soldiers aren't 'train sets' - they're f@cking human beings)........and sitting, inspired, as a very young Lt OC recce gave us all tasks in his O groups with brilliant clarity and we did what he said because he was our 'boss' and we would have followed him anywhere. Listen and learn from good and bad: frankly, I'm not sure that a children's organisation prepares you.
My feeling is that you've got a certain time as OCdt and 2Lt because those rank slides mean you are still learning, and the guys accept that. All it means when you're commissioned is that you now have the right to learn on the job - and being commissioned is the easiest part. As abacus says above, don't try to short-cut the system.
But will you listen? After all, at 33 I'm old enough to be your dad......... and teenagers never listen to grown-ups.

I see where you're coming from abacus but I've seen some of the UOTC lot that have passed MTQ1, and many of them haven't really impressed me.

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So have I and I've also seen many who have been VERY impressive indeed.

ssjmawson said:

I know there are probably some things taught in MTQ1 that I have only touched on as a cadet

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So why are you still arguing?

ssjmawson said:

I don't want to have to spend a year covering stuff I already know just so I can gleam the bits I don't.

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Hold on while I adjust my magic Instructor Clothes that let me teach you only stuff you don't know yet. By the way my DEPOs are taught the 24 hour clock, hope that won't be insulting your intelligence too much.

ssjmawson said:

Might sound a bit selfish

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Yes it does. I've seen a lot of would-be OCdts straight out of ACF and whilst many are fabulous young adults with real potential "many of them haven't really impressed me."

ssjmawson said:

StabTiffy; the pack we got was actively encouraging cadets to jump straight to officer training, it wasn't like it said "there's a possibility that you might", it was saying that if you met a certain standard as a cadet they would let you skip to officer training.

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So if you don't meet the certain standard you won't be able to. Sounds like there's a possibility that some might to me.

I have lost count of people who turn up to OTCs with 'I was a cadet RSM' the first thing they say.
But as they soon realise while they are great at drill and putting up a basher, thats only a tiny part of MTQ1.

Some are allowed stright on to MTQ2 and find the 'estimate'(7Qs) and orders pretty hard.

Be sure that you really do know what your doing before stepping up, because if you go for it and skip basic and then f*** up you will look like the worlds biggest cnut!

Also might be worth spending some time with adult soldiers. They ask questions and expect you to know the answer much harder to BS them.

Some of the Cadets we get through come along saying "I spent X yrs as a cadet, got to whatever level" etc. Invariably they are a pain in the arrse as they think they know how everything should be done. The hardest part, I've found. Is breaking them of the weapons handling drills taught in cadets. I once have resorted to duck tape to stop one ex cadet moving her right hand off the pistol grip.

Why do you say it sounds better than doing OTC at uni? You realise that OTC's are scaled for students and as such won't make many (if any) demands on your time when you have other pressures (exams, c/w). Just a thought... or is it the bounty that attracts you to the TA?

Cadets that refuse to leave their Hitler Jugend ways behind are swiftly encouraged to Foxtrot Oscar. Or they were in this year's Athlone intake.
To be honest, just because you've done x years as a cadet, I can't see how that can possibly qualify you to move onto officer training at all, especially in this case as you've mentioned Specialist TA Units. Surely it would make far more sense to actually spend time doing that job, as it's unlikely you would have encountered it while playing with your jack knife.

This is true, im an ex space cadet that has just gone through athlone with ULOTC.
Words uttered to me by my JUO after passing my selection weekend....leave you cadet head at the door, no one gives sh*t what you know or think you know. Keep your head down and crack on and you will go far!
Mason...take notes if you wish....

Doesnt this suggest that the RLC(V) must be getting a wee bit desperate, as people realise that okay, you get an HGV, but you might get your legs blown off in the sandpit, and what fcuking use will an HGV license be then?

A workmate just did his recruits course for the RLC (V)and said he'd done harder equal opportunities courses! No one was binned, Though some did quit.

Doesnt this suggest that the RLC(V) must be getting a wee bit desperate, as people realise that okay, you get an HGV, but you might get your legs blown off in the sandpit, and what fcuking use will an HGV license be then?

A workmate just did his recruits course for the RLC (V)and said he'd done harder equal opportunities courses! No one was binned, Though some did quit.

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Walt, your post is just sooooo wrong. Firstly, trying a wee bit of everything to recruit is not desperate (they may well be but the methodology should not be taken as indicative of such) it's just good practice. I am not going to debate here the rights and wrongs of what they are doing, just happy to acknowledge that they are doing something rather than sitting around moaning about it.

Your workmate is talking out of his hoop. If it was so damn easy, why did some quit? And just because no-one was RTUed does not mean that all passed. I have just seen a CMS(R) pass-off parade containing 3 recruits who had failed, one who will never darken our doors again and two who will be enthusiastically encouraged to try again. The Grantham course runs to exactly the same CTP as every other CMS(R) in the country including 95% of the DEPO course. It is not an attendance course - you need to work hard to pass.

Doesnt this suggest that the RLC(V) must be getting a wee bit desperate, as people realise that okay, you get an HGV, but you might get your legs blown off in the sandpit, and what fcuking use will an HGV license be then?

A workmate just did his recruits course for the RLC (V)and said he'd done harder equal opportunities courses! No one was binned, Though some did quit.

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Walt, your post is just sooooo wrong. Firstly, trying a wee bit of everything to recruit is not desperate (they may well be but the methodology should not be taken as indicative of such) it's just good practice. I am not going to debate here the rights and wrongs of what they are doing, just happy to acknowledge that they are doing something rather than sitting around moaning about it.

Your workmate is talking out of his hoop. If it was so damn easy, why did some quit? And just because no-one was RTUed does not mean that all passed. I have just seen a CMS(R) pass-off parade containing 3 recruits who had failed, one who will never darken our doors again and two who will be enthusiastically encouraged to try again. The Grantham course runs to exactly the same CTP as every other CMS(R) in the country including 95% of the DEPO course. It is not an attendance course - you need to work hard to pass.

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I'm sure my workmate is indeed talking out of his hoop. He has past form for that sort of thing. He did say that provided the basic material was there, people were being given every encouragement to meet required standards, and they were being binned as a last resort later, rather than sooner. I think this is a good thing for the TA as a whole.

But 4* cadet to officer? That beggars belief! Unless of course the Officer's course is every bit as as difficult as the recruits and THEN SOME, surely!